The Alikr dolmen madness

Nightfall12

ok so the xp is quick and you don't have to work that hard…but where is the fun? I tried joining in and its not very fulfilling. I mean the enemies seem to be dead before they even show up on screen! Are these massive groups just people leveling up alts? first time players are not just trying to skip straight to cp lvls are they?

Taleof2Cities

It’s not fun ... and you’re generally assigned a half-life as soon as you ‘x’ up for group.

That said it is one of the better ways to earn XP for players that feel they need to grind.

You’re right - it’s mostly new toons getting to 50 ... or new players getting to the CP cap.

Storm_knight22

You should join the group and place witch mother's brew , the jubilee cake or strange meat over where the chest spawns. It is also fun to aggro the daedroth near the stables dolmen just before the chest spawns, It will use its knockback AoE attack and the whole group will be sent flying!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Ul0qSQgeA

teiselaise

Nightfall12 wrote: »

ok so the xp is quick and you don't have to work that hard…but where is the fun? I tried joining in and its not very fulfilling. I mean the enemies seem to be dead before they even show up on screen! Are these massive groups just people leveling up alts? first time players are not just trying to skip straight to cp lvls are they?

I wouldn't be surprised if all of them where new players who just watched some youtube video that told them to go there, a lot of people apparently just play mmo's to grind.

Sixty5

Once you have levelled 10 charcters the whole process of levelling a new one loses a bit of its joy.

Dolmen grinding still isn't fun, but it gets the job done in terms of getting to the fun part of the game as fast and as easily as possible.

Ruckly

The Alik'r dolmen madness is an expression of the meaning of life.

Nightfall12

it would be nice if there was a separate "Grinders" zone for those….err maybe not name it that, but you know so Anyone trying to quest in that zone doesn't have to take huge lag spikes from the massive dolmen train coming through every minute.

Slick_007

Nightfall12 wrote: »

ok so the xp is quick and you don't have to work that hard…but where is the fun? I tried joining in and its not very fulfilling. I mean the enemies seem to be dead before they even show up on screen! Are these massive groups just people leveling up alts? first time players are not just trying to skip straight to cp lvls are they?

This is like the matrix where you just found out the world isnt real. Which pill will you take?

SydneyGrey

Storm_knight22 wrote: »

You should join the group and place witch mother's brew , the jubilee cake or strange meat over where the chest spawns. It is also fun to aggro the daedroth near the stables dolmen just before the chest spawns, It will use its knockback AoE attack and the whole group will be sent flying!

Noooo ... that's just harassing other players.

Pele

Some are alts. Some are new players. All are XP grinders.

As to why they do it, it's fast and easy XP. It's also mind numbing and soul sucking which is why Zone chat is usually nothing but 'X'.

Fun Fact: There's another dolmen zerg train in Auridon.

Bonus Fun Fact: New players who level this way end up being CP potatoes - completely and utterly useless at anything in the game that's not dolmen zerging because they never learned how to actually play.

Nightfall12

Oh i turned off Zone chat about 2 years ago…best in game choice to date!

SydneyGrey

Pele wrote: »

Bonus Fun Fact: New players who level this way end up being CP potatoes - completely and utterly useless at anything in the game that's not dolmen zerging because they never learned how to actually play.

That's not true. It's not like they suddenly stop learning how to play once they reach CP50. They have all the time in the world to learn how to hone their skills and become an awesome player. NO ONE spends 100% of their time running dolmens, not even when they're on their 10th character.

By the way, my first three characters were all leveled slowly without dolmen zerging, however, it took my studying the classes on the internet outside of the game before I really got good at those classes. If people care about learning how to play their class, they will, whether they do dolmens or not.

SantieClaws

Many moons ago the various set items dropped randomly from different dolmens yes.

Then the gods changed this so the same sets always dropped in the same area.

For the mages guild daily quests and just for having my new apprentices clear each dolmen there are two competing issues - at many dolmens there are rarely any travellers at all and at some there are just way too many.

Perhaps, without going back to how it was before, there may be some way of incentivising the use of different dolmens in different areas? To spread the load somehow.

Like perhaps an xp change where you get a boost if your next dolmen is in a different zone to the one you just did? Or some reward that you only can obtain in the same circumstances?

Yours with paws
Santie Claws

Hallothiel

Have been levelling up alts these last few days but I so prefer doing it via questing. More interesting & a chance to get the skill points from skyshards plus much more opportunities to try out different skills in different combat so you can get to know your build & what works for you.

Have been doing the Alik'r quests and the dolmen groups have been stupidly ridiculous. It just seems an utterly pointless way to grind.

MornaBaine

Somewhere after your fifth or sixth level 50 character leveling just isn't a lot of fun anymore. I tend to forgo the main story with its long monologues and the mage guild and fighters guild quests and miss out on those skill points in favor of doing content that goes more quickly in zones I'm not as mind numbingly familiar with. Since I only craft on a single character I don't need every skill point in the game for the others anyway. I rarely hop on the dolmen train for a quick boost but only last like half an hour before I wanna gouge out my own eyes with a spoon. LOL You can blame "lazy" players who don't really enjoy anything but end game but I'm not going to judge folks who want to experiment with different end game builds and don't want to slog through the slow and tedious grind of leveling via questing once again before they can do it.

It might be nice if questing were actually more rewarding in terms of the ... actual rewards... but nothing you get from doing so currently is any kind of incentive to do it. So I'm glad there still remain a few quick avenues to leveling up for those who want to use them. Rather than exhort ZOS to stomp them and force players to spend more time in activities they don't enjoy... maybe we should ask them to improve the content in general and offer things players actually want from questing that would make it worth the slower pace to a larger number of players.

Minyassa

I can't speak for others but the one time I spent a night doing the dolmen grind was because I really badly wanted to finish levling up my Vampire skill line while there was a double xp event and I didn't want to wait. But it was SO unfun. Hated every minute of it. 0/10 would not do again (since I am done getting that Lamae White!!).

Linaleah

its a good wait to level up fighter's guild skill line, not to mention various character skills. soloing with unleveled skills can be... annoying. join a dolmen group and your class skills, your weapon skill, etc - level up in no time. is it fun? depends on your preference. I can only stomach it for half an hour, tops in a single play session. but its enough to give my skill line leveling a boost so that I no longer have to have 5 odd skills slotted and try to solo play with those.

but.. as you can probably tell I only do that on either lowbie alts or a high level character that I might be experimenting on a build with. YMMV. just saying why some people might be running those.

oh and... its also a good way of getting diagna jewelry, which is a decent starter set for tanks.

JamieAubrey

Yes its not fun but join a large group and do little work

I just run to each dolmen stand on the chest spot, loot move to the next, all while watching GoT on my 2nd monitor

I'll take this method over running the same quests 10+ times

Qbiken

SydneyGrey wrote: »

Storm_knight22 wrote: »

You should join the group and place witch mother's brew , the jubilee cake or strange meat over where the chest spawns. It is also fun to aggro the daedroth near the stables dolmen just before the chest spawns, It will use its knockback AoE attack and the whole group will be sent flying!

Noooo ... that's just harassing other players.

Implying that making the area unplayable due to all those people stacking isn´t harassing xD (joke aside tho)..

Nestor

Here is the worst part about Dolmen Grinding a character, you only have 64 Skill Points when your done. No matter what your CP Rank is, a 64 Skill Point character is pretty useless.

What people really need to Grind are the Skyshards and Lore Books. And, here is the other irony, if you just chase the skyshards, your at L50 before you find enough to have 150 Skill Points so your not wasting that initial L50 Grind. So, it's kind of a waste of time in the long run to just get to L50 first.

Here is a better way:

Let me give you an example of what I did with my leveling characters.

1. I collected all the Skyshards in the zone. I avoided any and all quests other than those that show up in the delves that have skyshards. These quests do not give set items for rewards so no loss there.
2. I would farm the dolmens a few times to get set jewelry that helped my character
3. I would do the Public Dungeons including all the bosses
4. Then I would move to the next zone. Figure about 2 to 3 hours per zone all in all. Less if you rush it.

In doing this, I could fully gear up my character with level appropriate stuff, and it was helpful gear. May not have been the best, but you don't need the best while leveling. Any gear I farmed from Dolmens or PD's is repeatable, so I can get it at CP160 by just repeating. Then, I had all the content quests left for me once I reached CP160 as those can give you sweet Set Drops in good traits you want. And, Quest Experience is huge for gaining CPs once your past CP160. Kind of a waste before that.

In about 8 zones (16 to 25 hours), I would be fully leveled in Mages, Fighters, Class, 3 Armors and Weapon Skills. Leaving only Undaunted to level, although I would get to almost 3 in that from Dungeon Achievements. Sure you can get to L50 in 4 to 10 hours with a Dolmen or Skyreach Grind, but your still going to spend the 16 to 25 hours on the other stuff afterwards.

Beardimus

@Nestor is spot on here.

Grinding is the quickest way to ruin the game for yourself in my opinion. And you still need to trek for shards, lore books, etc etc.

Just play the game I say. Better for your longevity. But people love a rush

phileunderx2

For some players the dolmen grind is their primary playing experience on ESO. There is a person who posts streams all the time and this is what they do 70 % of the time. Every now and then they que for a dungeon and single spam skill their way through it. Fun stuff.

Beardimus

phileunderx2 wrote: »

For some players the dolmen grind is their primary playing experience on ESO. There is a person who posts streams all the time and this is what they do 70 % of the time. Every now and then they que for a dungeon and single spam skill their way through it. Fun stuff.

Scary...

Hence in events rather than everyone enjoying the quests and event style they charge off on the brew to grind. It's sad really.

That or OCD rock all 12 of their toons through every quest in an all nighter to despiratly get the rare pixels.

There was a time we just played for.... FUN.

Nestor

phileunderx2 wrote: »

For some players the dolmen grind is their primary playing experience on ESO. There is a person who posts streams all the time and this is what they do 70 % of the time. Every now and then they que for a dungeon and single spam skill their way through it. Fun stuff.

I remember one player arguing with me about how rotations are not needed, just spam a single skill and the game is yours. Of course this person just did Dolmen Zergs.

I kind of wish that ZOS would change the dolman timers so people would be encourage to actually prepare a character rather than grind to 50. But, I do like the stance they have now of not nerfing grind spots like they used to. Craglorn still has not recovered from that. Because, there are times I just want to get a few quick levels or polish off a skill line, but only on my otherwise developed characters.

kylewwefan

Leveling up new toons is a chore. Maybe they can ramp up xp gains for max or higher cp players

tommalmm

Beardimus wrote: »

@Nestor is spot on here.

Grinding is the quickest way to ruin the game for yourself in my opinion. And you still need to trek for shards, lore books, etc etc.

Just play the game I say. Better for your longevity. But people love a rush

I totally agree. Not to mention that on every first delve boss or public dungeon boss clear you're getting a decent amount of XP. Then there are dungeons with 1 skill point each (and a decent XP if that's a random, plus some XP for the quest). Usually once I'm lv50 I have enough skill points to cover all passives, two or three types of weapons and crafting (for hireling mail). Then you also have all the wayshrines unlocked, which is a nice bonus. But it usually takes 3-10 times as much as grinding (depending on location and speed, dolmens are rather low in XP/hour). One good thing is that your fighters guild level will get to 10 before you're at level 20.

TequilaFire

Or maybe just maybe all the critics of how people play should just worry about how they play themselves an not worry about what others do. But wait that doesn't make baiting caustic forum threads. smh

tommalmm

TequilaFire wrote: »

Or maybe just maybe all the critics of how people play should just worry about how they play themselves an not worry about what others do. But wait that doesn't make baiting caustic forum threads. smh

Many of the people (including me) have nothing against it. It's just that, for me, the dolmen zerg does look silly and very inefficient in the longer term. I don't meet that zerg often, because I'm not grinding at dolmens. I will join for a chance to get jewelry (on a low level char I usually have heavily outleveled jewelry, because it's often hard to buy <160CP ^^) if it happens to be up when I'm nearby, but I never join the group (lower EXP) and never repeatedly grind the dolmens).

TequilaFire

I don't join the dolmen zerg either but when I need to do the dolmens in Alik'r I just do them regardless of who is there and move on. On my characters I like to get Savior of Nirn and Daedric Lord Slayer as soon as possible so I level up by going to every zone doing all dolmens, delves, skyshards and lore books at the same time per zone. But I mainly PvP.

Slick_007

new players get to the game and all they see in places like auridon is people spamming for dolmen and telling them thats what they need to do. This is my problem with it.

If someones in chat asking what a dolmen is, the correct answer is tell them its something for them to do later. instead they get pulled into dolmen botting by all the others.
anyone who is doing an alt knows what they are and shouldnt be asking.

zaria

tommalmm wrote: »

Beardimus wrote: »

@Nestor is spot on here.

Grinding is the quickest way to ruin the game for yourself in my opinion. And you still need to trek for shards, lore books, etc etc.

Just play the game I say. Better for your longevity. But people love a rush

I totally agree. Not to mention that on every first delve boss or public dungeon boss clear you're getting a decent amount of XP. Then there are dungeons with 1 skill point each (and a decent XP if that's a random, plus some XP for the quest). Usually once I'm lv50 I have enough skill points to cover all passives, two or three types of weapons and crafting (for hireling mail). Then you also have all the wayshrines unlocked, which is a nice bonus. But it usually takes 3-10 times as much as grinding (depending on location and speed, dolmens are rather low in XP/hour). One good thing is that your fighters guild level will get to 10 before you're at level 20.

Yes, also do the daily random group dungeon. The quest give an skill point and the random dungeon + quest + kill xp will give you around two levels. This is more relevant if leveling multiple alts.